Aug 23, 2010

How to Search Engine Optimize a Video You Want to Go Viral

The appearance of videos in the SERP’s has made the search optimizers stand up and give video optimization a second look. Till date, videos were the most neglected lot of the web page elements. Now with viral marketing hitting the scene, videos are the being churned out one after another.

Another term for viral marketing is “Word of mouth”. Viral marketing coupled with a great video can help create a positive buzz around your brand. It increases the exposure and influence of your business / brand in the online market.

As it is with content, there are a lot of irrelevant and uninformative videos on the internet. You need to optimize your videos to get an upper hand on the already existing and high ranking videos.

Video Search Engine Optimization Best Practices:

1. Create Relevant And Informative Videos: If you want your video to go viral, you need to capture and hold the visitors attention. Include relevant and useful information in the video. The visitor should not have second thoughts about sharing and promoting your video.

2.Add A Catchy Title To The Video: The title of your video should be keyword rich and catchy. Remember that a visitor will click on the SERP link after reading the title. The title should not exceed 65 characters.

3.Include Important Key Phrases: Tag your video with important keywords. Find keywords with a fine balance of popularity and competitiveness. You can also include key phrases in your filename and video name.

4.Avoid a Lengthy Video: The length of your video should not exceed 5 minutes. Visitors do not spend much time on a search result. Your video content should immediately engage the visitors and hold their attention. If your video is very lengthy, break it down into smaller videos of 5 minutes each and tag them accordingly.

5.Brand Your Video: You can brand your video in two ways. You can add a watermark or your business logo in the video. This will help when a visitor embeds your video on their site. Your video will contain your brand name on it and the origin of the video will be always visible to the visitors.

6. Optimize The Meta Description: Your Meta description should be highly relevant to the video content. Include keywords in the video description.

7.Include A Video Rating Option: Add an option for the visitors to rate your video content. A good rating by visitors will influence others to view the video. This is a very popular technique for making your videos go viral.

8.Allow Others To Embed Your Videos: Allow and encourage the visitors to embed your video on their site. This will increase the number of do-follow backlinks to your video content. Remember to add your logo or watermark to the video.

9.Create Video Sitemaps: Google has recently announced that it will crawl and index individual videos in the sitemaps. Include all the important video tags in the sitemap. This will make it easier for the googlebot to find and index your video content.

Before creating a video, understand your target audience and their requirements. Videos that connect with the audience have a high success rate in viral marketing.